Essay number 1

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life

worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health,
food systems and the world of work. The economic and social
disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of
people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of
undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690 million,
could increase by up to 132 million by the end of the year.

Millions of enterprises face an existential threat. Nearly half of the

world’s 3.3 billion global workforce are at risk of losing their
livelihoods. Informal economy workers are particularly vulnerable
because the majority lack social protection and access to quality
health care and have lost access to productive assets. Without the
means to earn an income during lockdowns, many are unable to feed
themselves and their families. For most, no income means no food, or,
at best, less food and less nutritious food.  

The pandemic has been affecting the entire food system and has laid
bare its fragility. Border closures, trade restrictions and confinement
measures have been preventing farmers from accessing markets,
including for buying inputs and selling their produce, and agricultural
workers from harvesting crops, thus disrupting domestic and
international food supply chains and reducing access to healthy, safe
and diverse diets. The pandemic has decimated jobs and placed
millions of livelihoods at risk. As breadwinners lose jobs, fall ill and
die, the food security and nutrition of millions of women and men are
under threat, with those in low-income countries, particularly the most
marginalized populations, which include small-scale farmers and
indigenous peoples, being hardest hit.

Millions of agricultural workers – waged and self-employed – while

feeding the world, regularly face high levels of working poverty,
malnutrition and poor health, and suffer from a lack of safety and
labour protection as well as other types of abuse. With low and
irregular incomes and a lack of social support, many of them are
spurred to continue working, often in unsafe conditions, thus exposing
themselves and their families to additional risks. Further, when
experiencing income losses, they may resort to negative coping
strategies, such as distress sale of assets, predatory loans or child
labour. Migrant agricultural workers are particularly vulnerable,
because they face risks in their transport, working and living
conditions and struggle to access support measures put in place by
governments. Guaranteeing the safety and health of all agri-food
workers – from primary producers to those involved in food
processing, transport and retail, including street food vendors – as
well as better incomes and protection, will be critical to saving lives
and protecting public health, people’s livelihoods and food security. 

Essay number 2